Pint-sized comedienne-singer who electrified Broadway at age 19 with her debut as a wisecracking ugly-duckling blind date in the Hugh Martin-Ralph Blaine musical "Best Foot Forward" (1941). In 1943, Walker reprised the role in MGM's sassy film version and played a similar part in the remake of the Gershwins' "Girl Crazy."A child of vaudevillians, Walker parlayed her wickedly sarcastic deadpan delivery and unconventional looks into a unique comic persona. Perhaps her greatest showcase was "On the Town" (1944), as an aggressively man-chasing taxi driver who tries to persuade a sailor on leave to
